Results of EJP RD Joint Transnational Call (JTC2020)
In December 2019 the EJP RD launched its second Joint Transnational Call (JTC2020) co-funded with the European Commission to fund multilateral “Pre-Clinical Research to Develop Effective Therapies for Rare Diseases”. The aim of the call was to enable scientists in different countries to build an effective collaboration on a common interdisciplinary research project based on complementarities and sharing of expertise, with a clear benefit for patients. Twenty two countries joined this call: Austria, Belgium, Canada (including Québec), Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Turkey.
The process included a two-step submission and evaluation procedure.
In the first step a total of 173 eligible pre-proposals were submitted. After careful examination by the Scientific Evaluation Committee (SEC), 30 pre-proposals were selected for full submission. Each of the full proposals was then evaluated by at least two additional external experts whose reviews were sent to project coordinators in order to give them the opportunity of studying the assessments and commenting on experts’ arguments and evaluations. Both inputs were taken into account in a second SEC meeting.
Following the second SEC evaluation and ranking of the best projects, 18 consortia with a foreseen budget of about 24,5 Mio € were selected for funding, including 2.7 Mio € of co-funding from the European Commission.
The list of funded projects is detailed below. More information on the funded projects and the outcomes of the call (lay summaries, statistics, etc.) will be provided soon.
Selected Projects
AAK-INSIGHT
Title: Aniridia – Novel therapeutic tools to treat or prevent progressive cornea opacification
Coordinator: Lagali, Neil (SE)
Partners: ZHOU, Huiqing (NL) – Ashery-Padan, Ruth (IL) – LATTA, Lorenz (DE) – Bremond Gignac, Dominique (FR) – Güven, Sinan (TR)
ARMED
Title: Antioxidant treatment as a novel therapeutic option for microvillus inclusion disease
Coordinator: van IJzendoorn, Sven (NL)
Partners: Arango, Diego (ES) – Cerf-Bensussan, Nadine (FR) – Bakowsky, Udo (DE)
CHARLIE
Title: CHAnging Rare disorders of LysInE metabolism
Coordinator: van Karnebeek, Clara (NL)
Partners: Dimitrov, Bianca (DE) – Fillat, Cristina (ES) – Leavitt, Blair (CA) – Coene, Karlien (NL) – Hrabé Angelis, Martin (DE) – Ia Marca, Giancarlo (IT) – Linster, Carole (LU) – Familias GA1 (ES) – Selbsthilfegruppe Glutarazidurie ev. (DE) – Vereniging Volwassenen, Kinderen en Stofwisselingsziekten (NL)
CureMILS
Title: A reprogramming-based strategy for drug repositioning in patients with mitochondrial DNA-associated Leigh syndrome
Coordinator: Prigione, Alessandro (DE)
Partners: Pless, Ole (DE) – Edenhofer, Frank (AT) – Koopman, Werner (NL) – Suomalainen, Anu (FI) – Lisowski, Pawel (PL) – Bottani, Emanuela (IT) – Del Sol, Antonio (LU) – International Mito Patients (NL)
DBAGenCure
Title: Lentiviral-mediated gene therapy for Diamond Blackfan Anemia: Preclinical Safety and Efficacy Studies
Coordinator: Bueren, Juan (ES)
Partners: Lafontaine, Denis L.J (BE) – Beléndez, Cristina (ES) – Leblanc, Thierry (FR) – Niemeyer, Charlotte (DE) – Schmidt, Manfred (DE) – Asociación Afectados Blackfan Diamond España (ES) – Association Francophone de la Maladie de Blackfan-Diamond (AFMBD) (FR) – Diamond-Blackfan–Anämie Selbsthilfe E.V.
EpiThe4FSHD
Title: Safety and efficacy of a possible epigenetic therapy for FSHD muscular dystrophy
Coordinator: Gabellini, Davide (IT)
Partners: Al-awar, Rima (CA) – Schotta, Gunnar (DE) – Eraslan, Serpil (TR) – Siciliano, Gabriele (IT) – Unione Italiana Lotta alla Distrofia Muscolare (IT)
FANEDIT
Title: Gene editing as a novel therapeutic strategy in Fanconi anemia
Coordinator: Río, Paula (ES) – Corn, Jacob (CH) – Cathomen, Toni (DE) – Mussolino, Claudio (DE) – Soulier, Jean (FR) – Sevilla, Julián (ES) – Fundación Anemia de Fanconi (ES)
Partners:
GET-READY
Title: Genetic therapy for EYS- and USH2A-associated retinal disease
Coordinator: Collin, Rob (NL)
Partners: Gyorgy, Bence (CH) – Stieger, Knut (DE) – Trapani, Ivana (IT) – Kalatzis, Vasiliki (FR) – Remaut, Katrien (BE) – Siksnys, Virginijus (LT) – Stichting Oogfonds Nederland (NL)
MECPer-3D
Title: Personalized MECP2 gene therapy using CRISPR/Cas9 technology coupled to AAV-mediated delivery in 3D cell culture and KI mice.
Coordinator: Meloni, Ilaria (IT)
Partners: Chillon, Miguel (ES) – Ladewig, Julia (DE) – Herault, Yann (FR) – Chiariello, Mario (IT) – Associazione Italiana Rett– Airett (IT)
ProDGNE
Title: Novel therapeutic approaches to target GNE Myopathy
Coordinator: Videira, Paula (PT)
Partners: Lochmüller, Hanns (CA) – Caboni, Pierluigi (IT) – Horstkorte, Rüdiger (DE) – Associazione Gli Equilibristi – HIBM (IT)
SCN1A-up!
Title: Therapeutic strategies for Dravet syndrome: upregulation of endogenous SCN1A and modulation of remodeling.
Coordinator: Mantegazza, Massimo (FR)
Partners: Broccoli, Vania (IT) – de Witte, Peter (BE) – Nadif Kasri, Nael (NL) – Hedrich-Klimosch, Ulrike (DE) – Alliance Syndrome de Dravet (FR) – Dravet Italia Onlus (IT) – Dravet-Syndrom e.V. (DE) – Gruppo Famiglie Dravet Associazione Onlus (IT) – Stichting Dravetsyndroom (NL)
SILENCELQTS
Title: SGK1 inhibition as a novel therapeutic approach in Long QT syndrome
Coordinator: Wilde, Arthur (NL)
Partners: Crotti, Lia (IT) – Odening, Katja (CH) – Gepstein, Lior (IL) – Stichting Hart4Onderzoek (NL)
TC NER
Title: Transcription stress Counteracted by Nutritional interventions of Exceptional importance for rare DNA Repair diseases
Coordinator: Hoeijmakers, Jan (DE)
Partners: Laugel, Vincent (FR) – Mastroberardino, Pier G. (IT) – Vermeij, Wilbert (NL) – Altunoglu, Umut (TR) – Stg. Amy and Friends (NL)
TREAT-ARCA
Title: Designing a toolbox of paradigmatic treatments for a targeted molecular medicine approach to autosomal-recessive ataxias
Coordinator: Puccio, Hélène (FR)
Partners: Synofzik, Matthis (DE) – Brais, Bernard (CA) – Maltecca, Francesca (IT) – Ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (CA) – Deutsche Heredo-Ataxie Gesellschaft Bundesverband e.V. (DHAG e.V.) & EURO-Ataxia (DE)
TREATKCNQ
Title: Targeted treatment for KCNQ related encephalopathies: retigabine analogues, repurposed drugs and allele specific knock down
Coordinator: Weckhuysen, Sarah (BE)
Partners: Villard, Laurent (FR) – Taglialatela, Maurizio (IT) – Gribbon, Philip (DE) – Wuttke, Thomas (DE) – Dravet Italia Onlus (IT)
TreatRP
Title: Translating cGMP analogues into a treatment for retinitis pigmentosa
Coordinator: Marigo, Valeria (IT)
Partners: Schipper, Nicolaas (SE) – Paquet-Durand, Francois (DE) – Urtti, Arto (FI) – von der Leyen, Heiko (DE) – Agca, Cavit (TR) – Murro, Vittoria (IT) – PRO RETINA Deutschland e. V. (DE) – Retina Italia odv (IT)
TREAT-SGS
Title: Development and preclinical testing in human cell models and transgenic mice of a novel treatment for Schinzel-Giedion Syndrome
Coordinator: Ernst, Carl (CA)
Partners: Piazza, Rocco (IT) – Sessa, Alessandro (IT) – Ewing, Andrew (SE) – Phan, Thi Ngoc Nhu (SE) – Stumpf, Patrick (DE) – Schinzel-Giedion Foundation (UK)
WilsonMed
Title: Multimolecular targeting of copper overload in Wilson disease
Coordinator: Schmidt, Hartmut (DE)
Partners: Kroemer, Guido (FR) – Polishchuk, Roman (IT) – Socha, Piotr (PL) – Zischka, Hans (DE) – Association Bernard Pépin pour la maladie de Wilson (FR) – Associazione Nazionale Malattia di Wilson O.N.L.U.S. (IT) – Morbus Wilson e.V. (DE) – Polish Association of Wilson Disease Patients (PL)